Ba hao

“We develop the place to become more valuable by keeping its exisitng spaces and ensuring the matching structures with its neighborhood culture and lifestyle.” This is a renovation concept of the 60-years-old buildings in the old town of Soi Nana for a living space, a restaurant and a bar under the project titled Ba Hao, the sleepless shophouse.

The Beginning

All 6 partners having different paths, styles and dreams come together forward to renovate this 60 or 70-year old shop house in a vibrant area of Bangkok’s chinatown, which formerly owned by the Nana Family.

Inspiration

Eventhough each partner has different inspiraton, one of the partners – Khun Top or Khun Thanapolpoj Rochnattakul – share with us his inspiration, “I prefe to revitalize this old building and give it more life, a 24-hour life, where trendy bar, restaurant and accommodation can all be combined with traditional culture of the chinatown. Speaking of which, the accommodations share the feeling of being home upon the sunrise while bar and restaurant play a big part at night time.

New look

The change began when the original owner transformed a 2-story building into a 4-story and replace wooden windows with louver windows. Khun Top decided to keep its existing structure to match appearance in the neighboordhood. The interiors, however, were transformed completely while keeping its original structures. For instance, using the wooden windows instead of louver windows while applying glass walls in some area of the upper levels, adding a private bathroom in the bedroom to offer guests the conveniences. A complete transformation on the 2^nd to the 4^th level provides the guests a warm and friendly environment to make them feel at home by re-functioning the spaces into accommodtion, bar and restaurant instead of just a plain shop house..

Function

The 1st floor is the Oriental-style Bar and Restaurant focusing on modern Chinese-inspired decorations. Red lighting system is used and britghten the restaurant with wooden and marble furnitures. The bar counter captures the sophisticated soul of Chinese styling to blend with the culture in the neighborhood.

The 2nd floor is a shared living room for in-house guests on the 3^rd and 4^th floor which is equipped with a television, a computer, variety of books, a small food corner, and furnitures from many visiting countries to make the guests feel at home.

The 3^rd and 4^th floor is the en-suite rooms with private glass wall bathrooms. Both rooms are decorated with brown furnitures and painted with tinted green and brown to portrait the classical appearance.

Interior

Khun Top or Khun Thanapolpoj Rochnattakul, an architect from IF (Integrated Field) and one of the six partners, designs the Bar and Restaurant in modern Oriental Style. He adds some red tone to create Oriental look by using red letters and keeps the exisiting structure of the 1^st and 2^nd floor. He changes, however, the louver windows on the 3^rd and 4^th floor to the original wooden windows. Glass walls are also being used in some areas for guests to enjoy their own visual portrait of the outside, Trimitr Temple and the beauty of Chinatown and its surroundings.